Von Guérard’s new Grampians link

Eugene von Guérard
’s View of Mt Sturgeon and Mt Abrupt from the Crater of Bald Hill, which last week brought a surprise $270,000, or $329,000 with buyer’s premium, almost certainly sold to
Allan Myers
, QC, a wealthy lawyer and businessman who has long had a close association with the area shown in the picture.

The painting, which had spent 145 years in the hands of one family, was offered at Leonard Joel in Melbourne on March 25, as flagged in Saleroom on March 20. An oil on board 29 by 45.5 centimetres in a fine contemporary frame by Victorian artist/craftsman
Isaac Whitehead
, it sold well above its pre-sale ­estimate of $120,000 to $150,000.

Dating from 1869, the painting relates to sketches von Guérard produced during a visit to Victoria’s western district in 1856. It is among several known pictures that are based on those drawings, and is said to have been commissioned by pioneer settler John Thornton, owner of the nearby property, Mount Myrtoon.

Joel’s head of art, Sophie Ullin, said interest in the picture was strong, with four bidders on the phone and six in the saleroom. It was bid solidly up to $240,000, she said, then three parties had chased it up from $250,000 to the final hammer price. The successful bidder was Melbourne art conservator Aman Siddique, who has revealed he was buying on behalf of another party.

That party is widely believed to be Mr Myers, who was born and raised in Dunkeld in the Grampians and who has extensive property holdings in the district, including a family homestead.

Mr Myers is said to own more than a dozen von Guérards. He could not be contacted for comment.

Mr Myers has been chairman of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra since late 2012.

Last week he appeared on ABC TV’s Four Corners defending the NGA’s acquisition some years earlier of allegedly smuggled Indian artworks bought from New York-based antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor, who is now on trial in India and is also wanted in the US.